If you have trees on your property, one of the most important tasks you need to take care of is pruning. It can help prevent or stop the spread of disease, protect your household and property from injury and damage and enhance the aesthetics of your garden.
Although we would recommend you hire a tree Arborist, we understand you may want to give it a go yourself.Before you undertake the job of pruning your trees, there are some important do’s and don’ts you need to be aware of, that we’re going to discuss in the following post.
Do’s of Tree Pruning
Domake sure you wear appropriate clothing and safety equipment. Avoid wearing shorts and a t-shirt, instead opting for long sleeved tops and long pants. Although you don’t need to go overboard, a good pair of safety gloves, made from leather, and a pair of safety glasses or goggles should do the trick.
Domake sure you use clean, sharp cutting and pruning tools. When you use sharp pruning tools, you reduce the amount of unnecessary trauma the tree is going to experience while you are pruning. Clean tools help to prevent the spread of disease from one tree to another.
Do make tree pruning a through the year process. You should regularly check your trees and deal with any issues as they arise before it’s too late. For instance, if you find a dead or diseased branch, cut it off. By doing it that way, you will make life easier for yourself than if you just did it once a year activity.
Do make your cuts at the bottom of the branch as this avoids splitting. When you are making the first cut, choose a spot and cut through 1/3 of the branch from the underside. Then, moving a little ahead of that first cut, make a cut from the top down.
Do take care when trees and their limbs are close to the windows of your home. You only need to be a little neglectful with your tree, for it to start growing out of control. As the area is prone to a lot of severe weather conditions, you need to be careful though. If there are any limbs or branches that extend towards your home, prune these. Not only will doing so keep you safe in storms etc., it will also stop burglars from having easy access to your home.
Don’ts of Tree Pruning
Don’t cut any tree branch or limb you can’t reach with both your feet firmly on the ground. Tree pruning on ladders can be dangerous and could lead to injury or property damage. Call a professional tree pruning service instead.
Don’t work on any tree limbs or branches that have a diameter of more than 1-inch. Professional tree arborists should be called in this situation as they have access to the right tools and have the necessary experience working with larger branches like that safely.
Don’t cut branches or limbs too close to the tree trunk. It’s best to start cuts approximately 3-inches from the branch collar.
Don’t attempt to top a tree by cutting off branches from its crown. This is one of the biggest mistakes DIY tree pruners make and can lead to permanent damage to the tree.
Don’t prune more than 25% of the total branches and limbs of a tree in a single year. Remember you are just meant to be improving the health, safety, and aesthetics of the tree, not hacking at it mercilessly.
Don’t prune a tree that is still flowering until all its blossoms have fully opened and don’t prune a newly planted tree.
As you can see, there are a lot of important do’s and don’ts you need to consider when tree pruning. That is why It may be best, to prevent damage to your trees, property or injury to you or anyone else, that you hire a tree arborist in Queenstown.
